This invention relates to loose material handling apparatus and, more specifically, to a collapsible, reusable, lawn and gardening bagger which is especially useful for easily collecting and transporting a quantity of raked leaves, grass clippings, or other debris to a location remote from the initially raked area.
Landscaping and gardening work typically involves the gathering and disposing of large quantities of unwanted organic debris in loose form such as leaves, grass clippings, twigs and other cuttings. Due to present day environmental concerns and regulations, such organic debris must be composted either by the landowner, or by a municipality which arranges for scheduled pick-ups of debris which must be prepared for such pick-ups typically by placing the debris in neat piles on the side of the road or street in front of the house or other building.
On the other side of the coin, such landscaping and gardening work also typically involves gathering and transporting large quantities of wanted organic material in loose form to compost piles which many present-day, environmentally conscious gardeners create and continuously add to in a remote location for later retrieval and use in their garden beds.
Known material handling equipment intended for this type of bulk material transport include the well known wheelbarrow, of course, which, due to its raised container height, requires manual lifting of the loose material into the wheelbarrow. The other widely used containment method involves the time consuming, laborious task of stuffing the loose material into large lawn and garden bags. This is typically accomplished by the worker hand-lifting the material into the bag, perhaps with the aid of a rake or other garden tool. A funnel-type device such as that seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,278 may be used to keep the bag opening expanded while the debris is placed in the bag.
Other known material containers may be attached directly to a garden tool (e.g., a lawnmower) for collecting the debris from the discharge chute thereof. These containers may be of both the rigid and collapsible types, with a representative few disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Issue Date ______________________________________ 4,258,538 Morse 3/31/81 4,574,568 Trelford 3/11/86 4,648,238 Grieder et al 3/10/87 ______________________________________
While the above-mentioned inventions appear useful in combination with the mowers for which they were designed, they do not address the need for a lawn and garden bagger which one can use to directly rake a quantity of loose debris therein, and then proceed to transport the bagger and debris together to a remote location whereupon the debris is removed from the bagger.